{"id":29,"date":"2008-10-09T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/?p=29"},"modified":"2008-10-20T23:34:37","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T23:34:37","slug":"control-your-email-outbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/email-tips-strategies\/control-your-email-outbox\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Control of Your Email Outbox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Are you running out of space on your hard drive because your outbox is crammed full of all the email you&#8217;ve ever sent? Are you having trouble finding the message you want to resend because your client accidentally deleted it?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you&#8217;re tired of typing the same things over and over with only minor changes for different clients. Maybe you feel like you can&#8217;t get any &#8220;real work&#8221; done since you&#8217;re constantly being interrupted to answer urgent email requests.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some tips to help you save space in your email outbox and be more productive when sending messages.<\/p>\n<p>1. Make it a habit to write\/reply\/send email in a way that doesn&#8217;t interfere with your other tasks. Choose the timing and frequency that make the best sense for you. Twice a day works for many folks; honor your individual style. Better yet, delegate this job whenever possible.<\/p>\n<p>2. Write only what needs to be said. Be brief and to the point. Use short phrases. Reply inline (in a different color) to questions you&#8217;ve been asked so you don&#8217;t need to repeat long sentences.<\/p>\n<p>3. Look at the messages you send with a critical eye. Are you sending multiple messages to the same people every week? Consider batching up your comments and questions in a single email.<\/p>\n<p>4. Are you sending the same message to different folks one at a time? Consider using &#8220;carbon copies&#8221; when appropriate and learn how to use distribution lists. Investigate the &#8220;stationery&#8221; function in your email program. Using this feature makes it easy to set up &#8220;boilerplate&#8221; text and easily customize it.<\/p>\n<p>5. You probably don&#8217;t need to keep a copy of every message you send (after you&#8217;re sure it&#8217;s been received). Take the items you&#8217;ve decided to save and sort them into folders for easy retrieval later. Delete the rest.<\/p>\n<p>6. Learn how to use the search function in your email program. Most systems have extensive features that make finding particular items quick and easy.<\/p>\n<p>7. Backup your mailboxes and folders. Use at least one method that doesn&#8217;t simply copy files from one place on your hard drive to another. That way you won&#8217;t lose the backup if your computer crashes. Backup to CD, DVD, USB flash drive, or to an on line storage facility.<\/p>\n<p>8. Print out any messages that contain critical information and\/or provide important (possible legal) documentation (perhaps a reply to a client&#8217;s IRS notice or a detailed list of recommendations to a coaching client) and file in a convenient location. Make it as easy as possible to locate in an emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you running out of space on your hard drive because your outbox is crammed full of all the email you&#8217;ve ever sent? Are you having trouble finding the message you want to resend because your client accidentally deleted it?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps you&#8217;re tired of typing the same things over and over with only minor changes [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,33],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-email-tips-strategies","tag-email-tips","tag-productivity","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sherylschuff.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}